Friday 11 January, 2013

7 On the first day of the week we met to break bread and eat together. Paul spoke to the people. He kept on talking until midnight because he planned to leave the next day. 8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. 9 A young man named Eutychus was sitting in a window. He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Sound asleep, Eutychus fell from the third floor. When they picked him up from the ground, he was dead. 10 Paul went down and threw himself on the young man. He put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “He’s alive!” 11 Then Paul went upstairs again. He broke bread and ate with them. He kept on talking until daylight. Then he left. 12 The people took the young man home. They were greatly comforted because he was alive.

What a random event in the record of Acts. A kid falls out of third story window whilst listening to Paul, and dies.

What a shocking event! Yet even in the apparently random, grossly unfortunate, unexplainable event that this was, God works His good purpose. And Paul is his man for the moment.

Maybe he initially experienced shock. Maybe he was thrown by the moment for a moment. But just as quickly Paul is into action, and into a place of faith-filled action.

God worked in this random event a glorious miracle, and great comfort for His people.

What challenges me most is Paul’s readiness to go to a place of faith in the midst of apparently random and unfortunate events. I think about my life, and my week, and there are often apparently random or unfortunate events that take place. Not necessarily young men falling out of windows and dying right in front of me. But needs of others coming up that I hadn’t

planned to attend to. Unfortunate news such as sickness or troubles in lives around me or simply interruptions to my day that I couldn’t have controlled but now have to deal with.

And the example of Paul calls me to quickly go to a place of faith. God is at work here. God has got a plan for this moment. God can put his goodness on display. God’s got a miracle in store. Rather than shock, or disappointment, or throwing my hands up in the air. God wants faith.

God, help me to quickly move to faith, no matter what circumstances might take place in

this day.

By Ps. Rob Waugh